I owe that victory to you, and now I'm counting on you to get this idea into the Top 10. Let's send a message, loud and clear, that we don't need to rely on dishonest voting tactics to win, as others in the competition have – we've shown that we can win the old-fashioned way, and we can do so again.

IDEA

The proposed wiki would describe the following for every pressing global challenge such as climate change and weapons proliferation:
[1] What successful and failed policies have been deployed to address it in the past;
[2] What measures need to be taken to move forward;
[3] Which international institutions, governments, businesses, NGOs, and individuals are addressing the challenge in question, and how;
[4] What networks exist between these players; and
[5] What coordinated steps these players can take to collaborate effectively without replicating each other's efforts, wasting precious resources, and, worst of all, undermining each other in the quest to gain recognition for their work.

This proposal is doubtless ambitious, and it's an idea that needs to be refined and tested. If it's implemented correctly, though, it could serve as a powerful tool in the fight against every global challenge.

VOTING TIME LINE

– Start: 8:00am EST on Monday, 1/5
– End: 5:00pm EST on Thursday, 1/15.

VOTING INSTRUCTIONS

– Register at https://www.change.org/admin/sign_up.
– You'll receive a confirmation e-mail with a link inside; click on that link to return to Change.org as a registered user.
– Click on the "Ideas" icon in the top right-hand corner of the page.
– Find the "Social Entrepreneurship" category.
– Click on "Establish a 'Global Challenges Wikipedia' to Empower Problem Solvers."
– Click on the "Vote" icon in the top left-hand corner and make sure that the vote count increases by one.

YOU

– Vote as early as you can on 1/5.
– Get at least 20 of your friends and family members to vote.

If you want to play an even more active role in this campaign, please e-mail me so that I can give you further details.

We have two weeks to reach the next administration – let's make something amazing happen!

So, here's the deal: Change.org is sponsoring a competition whereby anyone can post an idea for making America better. The ten ideas that receive the most votes will be presented to Barack Obama on Inauguration Day. They'll also receive the support of a national lobbying campaign run by Change.org, MySpace, and more than a dozen high-profile NGOs. In short, the ten winning ideas have a real chance of being implemented.

All you have to do is go here and click on the "Vote" icon in the top left-hand corner. My idea needs 100 votes to make it to the second round, and the deadline for voting in the first round is December 31st.

I'd greatly appreciate your taking a few seconds to cast your vote and bring my idea closer to becoming one of the Obama administration's priorities!

I'm currently a Junior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment, a think tank that's based in D.C, studying democratization and governance in China. Given that I'm a twig, it never ceases to amuse me that the other fellow in my program is a certified body builder and a walking encyclopedia of information on health and nutrition. We've done a comprehensive study of Beijing's performance in the Olympics and conducted research for a report on how the next administration should approach China. Next up, we'll be working on a grant proposal for a project that examines the risks that China will confront in the next 10-15 years. The work is intense but fascinating, and I know that the year ahead will be tremendously enriching. I have no idea what'll happen next, but I have some time to think about options.

Enough about me, though, and onto the blog. I started "The Humanitarian Blog" to spotlight the amazing work that MIT students are doing on behalf of developing countries. I thought about continuing it as an alum, but I decided that it'd be good for someone new to take over and impart a fresh perspective. I'm delighted to announce that Angelica Weiner '09 will be taking over the blog starting this year.

In addition to being a close friend, Angelica is one of the most earnest individuals whom I've met. She's a rock star in Course 11, a fluent Spanish speaker, and a salsa dancer to boot. Selected as a Community Catalyst Leader and a Goldman Sachs Global Leader in 2007, she was a finalist for the prestigious Truman Scholarship this year. Those plaudits don't come easily. She's the International Outreach Coordinator for the Public Service Center, the Co-Founder of MIT Engineers Without Borders, and the Elected Student Representative on the Urban Studies Student Council. Her passion for community service has already taken her to Mexico, Ecuador, Thailand, and Singapore, and that list will doubtless expand rapidly in the years to come. With her boundless spirit, curiosity, and sincerity, she'll be a fine steward of the world that our children inherit.

Angelica, thank you for being such an inspiration -- go forth and make your dreams happen. Pura Vida!

(1) Sacha Yaku ("Jungle Water")

The brainchild of Kendra Johnson '09, Sacha Yaku aims to empower the women of Santa Ana, Ecuador through the sale of their jewelry and ceramics. It is analogous to Emerge, for those of you who are familiar with Alia Whitney-Johnson:

Twice a year, Sacha Yaku will purchase ceramics and jewelry from the women individually. Sinchi Warmi can choose to ask its members to contribute a portion of these to bulk purchase of materials, tools, etc.

The proceeds after travel and operating costs will be invested in the water system – to pay for electricity, chlorine, the salary of the community operator, and any repairs necessary.

(2) "Braille Pencil"

Nadia Elkordy '08 and her teammates were big winners at this year's IDEAS Competition, taking home the $7,500 Health Innovation Award for developing a braille pencil. "Similar to a pencil in size and ease of use, the device enables Braille users to take notes and write for extensive periods of time."

Rhodes Scholar

One of Glamour Magazine's Top 10 College Women in 2007

Member of the 2008 All-USA College Academic First Team

.
.
.
.

I'll never forget meeting Melis Anahtar at FLP -- she has such a beautiful smile that you'd think that she's the daughter of a Crest employee. One night my first semester here, I was struggling with an 18.02 problem. My roommate couldn't figure it out either, so I decided to ask Melis for help over AIM -- she patiently explained to me how to solve it, but I remained confused. I'd already taken half an hour of her time, so I thought that it'd be imposing of me to ask if I could get help from her in person -- much to my surprise, she asked if I wanted to meet her in person. It was a no-brainer -- I hustled to Next House as fast as possible and practically flew into her room. As I caught my breath, she took me through every step of the problem once again, and walked out with a smile on her face as she left to go wherever she was heading.

That story captures the qualities about Melis that inspire me everyday -- brilliance, kindness, and humility, all of which she displays so effortlessly. I'm grateful to have her as a role model, as are so many other people at MIT.

With graduation a few weeks away, I decided to profile her for my blog. At first I thought that I'd try to narrate her story by myself, but I soon realized that doing so would be a daunting task -- she has done so much research and contributed to MIT in so many ways that I wouldn't know where to begin. So, I decided to let her "write" this entry in some sense -- I asked her a few questions about her upbringing and her experiences. Prepare to be dazzled...

How did you get interested in science?

Both of my parents are architects, so I grew up in their studio and developed a passion for designing, building, and drawing. I loved playing with Legos and making “cities” out of trash like old tissues boxes and paper towel rolls. I was also lucky to grow up in the D.C. metropolitan area, where there were many science-related extracurricular activities available like science clubs taught by scientists from NIST and the NIH on the weekends, electricity workshops offered through the 4-H, and a problem solving competition called Odyssey of the Mind (which I did from 1st – 11th grade).

Which experiences, before and at MIT, have been most formative in your development as a person, thinker, and so forth?

I attended Math, Science, and Computer Science Magnet programs in middle and high school. They were wonderful, nurturing environments where I got exposed to advanced biology, computer science, chemistry, math, and so forth. My passion for research and science began in earnest in 10th grade, when I became fascinated with biology and learned about all of the “crazy” processes that occur in our bodies. I was able to take advanced classes in genetics and cellular physiology that also made me curious about biological mechanisms.

Another part of the Magnet curriculum was the senior research project. It was a tremendous opportunity to spend two summers (after my sophomore and junior years of high school) working in the Center for Engineering in Medicine (CEM) at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). My mom and sister moved up to Boston with me and I did a project in microfluidics, where I created a device that separates 99% of the white blood cells in a few drops of blood. In the future, this device could be used for personalizing medicine. It was incredible to go from designing a device on the computer, making it in the clean room, and then testing it with rat blood. I’ll never forget watching the red blood cells explode as they went coursed through the device, and seeing that only white blood cells were coming out of the outlet. Through that experience, I really fell in love with bioengineering, became a finalist in the Intel Science Talent Search, got 1st place in Engineering at the International Science and Engineering Fair, and got to publish a paper in Analytical Chemistry where I was the second author. Most importantly, it was at MGH that I learned about MIT. Everyone there told me how it was the best engineering school and that I just had to go there!

In what labs have you worked, and what research did you conduct in each?

Freshman-year IAP – May: I worked in the lab of Professor Jianzhu Chen at the MIT Center for Cancer Research. We were trying to develop an efficient method of promoting cellular uptake of siRNA. I tested formulations for pulmonary delivery of siRNA in vivo using two non-toxic carriers, polyethylenimine and poly-beta-amino ester. Through my research in the Chen Lab, I became proficient at handling animals and learned the fundamentals of gene therapy, drug delivery, and cell cultures. I also further developed my interests in genetics and virology.

It was fascinating to apply the latest discoveries in biology to such a practical and extremely important problem as treating influenza. The challenges of delivering RNA to cells captured my imagination, and made me very interested in the application of nanotechnology to this problem. Obviously, nanotechnology is still in its infancy, but it has great potential for future diagnostic and treatment techniques. Thus, I arranged to spend the summer of 2005 at NIST, studying the use of optical tweezers to create nanowire-based devices. Nanowires are the basic building block of the nanoscale world, and while we have many different types available to us, there are very few tools to manipulate and assemble them directly. One of the few such tools is optical tweezers, which use the momentum of photons to move around and trap objects smaller than ten microns. I used them to manipulate semiconducting zinc oxide nanowires and create junctions and parallel wires, with the goal of eventually making more complex structures.

Sophomore and junior academic years: I worked in the BioInstrumentation Lab. My main focus was testing the efficacy of three generations of a needle-free injector (NFI) that had been developed there. Conventional hypodermic syringes used for drug injection present many hazards due to accidental needle sticks and improper disposal. The NFI eliminates the necessity for a needle by puncturing the skin using a high-velocity liquid jet. In addition to being safer than a hypodermic needle, it may also have higher patient compliance rates due to a less painful injection. I was able to participate in the research and development phases, and worked simultaneously with mechanical engineers and a biologist. From side projects, I learned circuit design and control systems.

[Check out her essay on NFIs at http://web.mit.edu/mitir/2008/spring/needle.html.]

Summers after sophomore, junior, and (soon to be) senior years: I worked in the Human Biochemical Genetics Lab at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). The lab specializes in rare genetic disorders caused by problems in vesicle-related organelle formation and trafficking. I chose the lab for the opportunity to conduct genetics research for the clinical director of the NHGRI, Dr. Bill Gahl. Every Thursday morning, we had the opportunity to shadow him on clinical rounds and see him transition flawlessly between the bench and bedside. The research has been especially meaningful because of the clinical applications; the decision to return to the lab this summer was a no-brainer. I couldn’t seem to get the research out of my mind, and I worked non-stop during the day but couldn’t have been happier about it.

As a summer student in 2006, I studied Hermansky-Pudlak Syndrome, a genetic disease which causes albinism, excessive bleeding, and sometimes pulmonary fibrosis and colitis, and also met patients affected by the disorder. In 2007, I studied disease markers for pulmonary fibrosis, with the goal of developing outcome parameters for clinical trials involving the most seriously affected patients. At the same time, I studied patients with Smith-Magenis Syndrome, a developmental disorder that causes autism and inverse circadian patterns of sleep. I worked directly with Dr. Ann Smith, who first described the condition in 1986, and performed real-time PCR on patient DNA to determine the breakpoints of their large deletion on chromosome 17.

Finally, I did my senior thesis project (September 2007-May 2008) in the Lab for Multiscale Regenerative Technology under the guidance of Professor Sangeeta Bhatia. I designed and synthesized biocompatible silicon nanoparticles that can be used to image tumors using MRI.

That being said, I begin with two plugs:

-- Check out the second issue of the MIT International Review at http://web.mit.edu/mitir/!
-- Forum on American Progress will be releasing a booklet, America in the World: MIT Speaks, that showcases 25 undergraduates' responses to the following question: "What is the most important challenge facing our world, and what should the United States do to solve it?" Two fellow bloggers, Paul and Karen, are among the authors. Here's a picture of the cover so that you can get a sneak preview:

Next, a hearty round of congratulations is in order for Zahir Dossa, who I profiled in my first blog. A producer at the History Channel happened to read it, contacted Zahir, and asked him to film a 14-part television series this summer on global warming in Antarctica! He's currently planning the first few episodes, which, apparently, are so good that the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, and several other high-profile channels are bidding over the rights to his series.

Next, keep your eyes peeled for profiles of the one and only Melis; Kendra Johnson, who's founded a program to help the women of Santa Ana, Ecuador, support their water system through the sale of their jewelry and ceramics; and Nadia Elkordy, whose team won this year's IDEAS competition for its development of a braille pencil.

Last but not least, I'll be revealing my successor in an upcoming entry!

Date: Friday, 2/8
Time: 6:00pm to 7:30pm
Location: 4-270

There'll be four panelists, all of whom have a strong interest in Pakistani politics: Samad Khurram and Aqil Sajjad from Harvard, and Saad Zaheer and myself from MIT. We'll each speak for ten minutes, with the remaining 50 minutes reserved for questions, answers, and debate.

This event is especially important in light of Benazir Bhutto's assassination and the polarized dialogue to which it has given rise.

I hope to see lots of you there!

I’m not going to try to do justice to our trip in this entry. We snapped well over 400 pictures, and we came away with enough stories to fill several days at least – I’d be more than happy to share them if you’d like. =) What follow are just a few of the highlights:

We spent the first leg of our trip in Hyderabad, one of India’s renowned IT hubs, and the latter leg in Ahmedabad, the site of Gandhi Ashram. We braved death many times each day – that is to say, we crossed the road many times each day. Traffic in India is bumper-to-bumper in a very real sense. Take a big road without lanes, fill it to capacity with rickshaws (India’s take on golf carts), bikes, motorcycles, and cars whizzing by and honking their horns every second, toss in a few bulls for good measure, and you have some idea of what it’s like traveling India’s roads. I’m giving the thumbs-up because we haven’t gotten in an accident:

After we got used to the traffic, we got down to business and arranged meetings with three organizations: BASIX, which works “to promote a large number of sustainable livelihoods, including for the rural poor and women, through the provision of financial services and technical assistance in an integrated manner”; SEWA (Self Employed Women’s Association), a trade union for “women who earn a living through their own labor or small businesses"; and SELCO, “a social enterprise, provides sustainable energy services to under-served households and businesses in India.”

Meeting with those groups gave us a reality check. We thought that reducing indoor air pollution would be a self-evident priority for the poorest of the poor. It annually causes 500,000 deaths in India, and the World Health Organization estimates that pollution levels in rural Indian kitchens are 30 times higher than acceptable levels. As it turns out, the rural poor are understandably far more concerned with feeding themselves and their families than they are with reducing the smoke in their homes. We also learned that many families like having smoke in their homes because it imparts a rich flavor to their food. The issue, then, isn’t one of technology: The Indian government has actually designed smokeless cooking stoves (known as chulas), but it hasn’t been able to market them in rural areas in large part for the reasons just mentioned.

As they illuminated some of the complexities of our proposed project, these groups also reminded us that urban poverty is far worse than rural poverty. There’s at least some support network for the rural poor – namely, their neighbors, who tend to be poor as well. The urban poor have nothing.

Their plight illuminates another reality: A very skewed form of globalization has come to India. Below are a picture of a McDonalds in Ahmedabad and a picture of the Cyber Towers in Hyderabad, which house offices of many of the world’s software titans (Google and Microsoft, for example):

As in China, the benefits of global economic integration have overwhelmingly accrued to a narrow elite, with hundreds of millions of Indians seeing their welfare either stagnate or decline. Here’s an indicative headline from the January 11th issue of a leading Indian newspaper:

This headline isn’t to say that socioeconomic disparities don’t exist in more developed countries – they certainly do. In India, however, one witnesses poverty in a far more immediate manner. When you’re stuck in traffic, a small boy whose arms have been amputated bangs his head on your window. When you go shopping, a mother tugs at your sleeves, her baby in hand. When you cross the street, you see an emaciated old man lying on the street, shivering even though it’s hot outside.

The other striking feature of poverty in India is its physical character. We’re used to thinking of wealthy neighborhoods and poor neighborhoods. In India, opulence and squalor are inextricably intertwined. Heavily guarded five-star hotels are located next to trash pits and open sewers. Privileged members of society socialize at an upscale country club while the down and out urinate on the nearby streets and rummage through trash cans for food.

These types of conversations and experiences compelled us to reexamine our project (and the assumptions guiding it) on many an occasion. Nonetheless, we decided to carry on and collect as much data on air quality as we could.

Two days before we were to leave, we hadn’t even tested our prototype – more accurately, a simple apparatus made out of commonly available materials such as bottles and cardboard:

Arranging a visit to a rural village wouldn’t be feasible given our time constraints, so we had to locate a proxy for a typical kitchen in rural India. As at many other times during our trip, we placed our faith in ad hoc planning. Anne and I left our hotel and started walking around in the hopes of finding a suitable testing site. Lo and behold, we found the perfect garage not too far away. Unfortunately, there was a car parked in it, and removing it would require that we speak with the family who owned it – it didn’t help that all of them were eyeing us suspiciously as we surveyed their garage from afar. We went back to the hotel and, while Anne readied our device, I explained my request to one of the hotel managers in my broken “Hinglish.” One of his staff members duly escorted us to the site and spoke with the family, who unexpectedly (and kindly) removed the car and allowed us the use of their garage for three hours for a small fee, which we happily paid. The two sons bought us a power strip, helped us set up our equipment, rekindled the fire every so often when it began to die out, and asked us questions throughout our stay:

Encouraged that our extemporaneous garage experiment had been a success, we decided to try our luck at visiting a nearby slum and collecting more measurements. Anne and I found a translator from SEWA who escorted us the day before we left. We felt quite uncomfortable when we first arrived because everyone in the slum was staring at us when we arrived. It was as though they were thinking, “What are these clearly Western, relatively well-off people doing in our neck of the woods?” The initial tension dissipated as we made our way to the first of the five houses in which we collected measurements. At any moment, we had dozens of people walking with us. Two teenage boys facilitated our work, guiding us from house to house, clearing people out when the site became overly crowded, and asking the families to respond to answer our questions as we surveyed their cooking environments. As we left, several dozen people from the slum gathered near the entrance and wished us well as we got onto the rickshaw to head home.

The bureaucracy that pervades India’s government and professional corps was absent during those two trips – to the garage and to the slum. As I flew back, I kept thinking back to the people who I met there (I had a lot of time to think – the flight from Mumbai to New York is 16 hours). I doubt that many of them had received a basic education. They had neither running water nor electricity. Their homes were little more than straw huts. Their prospects for the future were dim. And yet, they were happy – genuinely happy.

And I couldn’t help but feel happy, too – not only because I'd had the chance to meet such inspiring people, but also because I was able to appreciate what I have in my life in a way that I couldn’t have before. You can never understand how much someone means to you until he or she’s not there.

I want to take a little space to thank those people. To Ammi and Abbu (Mom and Dad): I don’t know who or where I’d be without you. To Zaahira, my sister and most trusted friend: I love you with all of my heart. To my closest friends – Matt, first and foremost; Elizabeth, who completes me in ways that she'll probably never know; and all of the SuMmErFuN folks, who've made the past two years of my life some of the happiest – thank you for being you.

And lastly, to the slum children who smiled at me even though it seems that they have no reason to do so – I learned more about the resilience of the human spirit from looking into your eyes than I ever could from a lifetime of reading and studying.

I don’t know where I’ll be in 30 years or where you’ll be, but something tells me that we’ll meet again on a brighter day, perhaps when we least expect it. Until then…

Visit http://www.youtube.com/thedavosquestion and post a video response of no more than three minutes to the following question: "What one thing do you think that countries, companies or individuals must do to make the world a better place in 2008?" World leaders will watch and offer video responses to the highest-rated videos.

The website offers five tips for increasing the likelihood of your video's being chosen, so be sure to heed those.

Best of luck!

Enough about me, though. The point is that I’d grown to be quite cynical about the political activity of people my age by the time I came to MIT. I figured that most of them just wanted to draw attention to themselves.

It was Alia Whitney-Johnson ‘08 who made me recognize the folly of my cynicism. In fact, she is the person who inspired me to start this blog.

She traveled to Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the tsunami that devastated Southeast Asia in December 2004. It was there, while engaging in humanitarian relief efforts, that she had an awakening that would lead to Emerge:

“My stomach turned as I stepped foot for the first time into Ma-Sevana, a home for sexually abused teenage mothers in Sri Lanka. No amount of mental preparation equipped me for the emotional wave that swept through my body, draining me of my usual composure. 20 girls, ages 10 to 18, were clustered around a table in a long, dimly-lit room, holding and nursing their babies. Their tiny bodies left me in disbelief that they could even bare a child. And yet, there they were, alone and young, straddling two worlds, somewhere between woman and girl, mother and child… It was on that day that I decided to host my first jewelry workshop with the girls so that I might get to know them better.”

Emerge aims to empower these girls – oftentimes the victims of rape or incest at the hands of family members – by helping them sell their jewelry. Alia told me that “[beading] was the best form of therapy that [the girls’] counselor had seen, and I quickly realized its business potential if developed and marketed in the correct way.”

She would soon encounter obstacles as she attempted to implement her idea.

When she returned from her third trip to Sri Lanka, she told me stories about the stifling Sri Lankan bureaucracy, the misappropriation of funds that she had worked so hard to gather, and the late nights that she had spent working in stuffy Internet cafes to finish reports after her hard drive crashed. She described the rape and imprisonment of girls whom she was nurturing and the wrenching challenge of comforting a 14-year-old girl who had lost her healthy son of six months when he choked in his sleep. Most people would quit if they endured these types of experiences.

But she didn’t. In retrospect, I feel ashamed that I ever viewed her endeavor with cynicism.

She has built up Emerge the old-fashioned way: one trip to Sri Lanka at a time, one lecture at a time, one jewelry sale at a time, one e-mail newsletter at a time. Where I saw so many other people falter in their efforts, she persisted. It was at that moment that I recognized that there was something different about Alia – something profoundly different.

What started as a small gesture of kindness – making jewelry for a small group of girls – has blossomed into an impressive NGO that has won a $10,000 grant from the World Bank and gained community partners ranging from Victoria’s Secret to Sarvodaya, a Sri Lankan group that engages in development and reconstruction work.

Her work in Sri Lanka has already won her national acclaim: She was selected as a Truman Scholar last year and as one of Glamour’s “Top Ten College Women” this year (as was the amazing Melis Anahtar, who I’ll be profiling in one of my blog entries next semester).

Alia plans to spend the next two to five years developing Emerge into a sustainable organization. Here, from her website, is the philosophy that’ll guide her as she embarks on this journey:

We see their reality
of both strength and pain,
where dreams have no means to blossom

We aim to give a voice to those silenced,
and to build the reality where every woman can emerge into her own

The girls of Sri Lanka have in Alia an incredible beacon of hope and defender of justice. Having bought a necklace at her jewelry sale, I can’t help but think that her heart is among the world’s rarest gems.

Since that violent culmination – thankfully, no one was hurt in the blast – activism has largely been confined to a few small groups, many of which have gained a reputation as “fringe.” Initial reports of indiscriminate attacks against Sudanese civilians in the region of Darfur in February 2003 passed without much discussion at MIT. After the attacks were labeled as “genocide,” however, the Institute was placed in an awkward situation. While it didn’t want to appear indifferent in the face of the atrocities that were occurring – atrocities to which its investments could well have been contributing, however minimally – it was hesitant to make “an exception to its long-standing policy of not speaking with a single institutional voice on matters of public debate not directly affecting MIT's core mission of education, research, and service.”

Enter Kayvan Zainabadi G, a 27-year old native of Iran who’s pursuing his Ph.D. in Course 7.

Although he spent most of his life in southern California, receiving his bachelor’s from UCLA, it wasn’t until coming to MIT that Kayvan found his activist voice. He told me, “After reading the news reports coming out of Darfur…about the atrocities, the rapes, the fact that genocide was once again occurring, though this time in real-time, I just had to do something – anything.” Kayvan got connected to other activists in the Boston area by attending a Darfur rally in Government Center. “People asked me, ‘What’s going on at MIT to address this?’ I had no answer, so I started looking around and asking – I found out that MIT hadn’t even taken the most basic steps, like ensuring that its endowment wasn’t funding the genocide.”

And that’s when Kayvan’s campaign began. Through tireless work – he has hosted lectures, screenings, and photo exhibits; written letters and opinion pieces; delivered postcards to and met with Michael Capuano, Cambridge’s congressional representative; and so forth – he has single-handedly made the crisis in Darfur one of the MIT community’s biggest priorities.

Over a year later, his efforts paid off when MIT decided to “divest as appropriate for those portfolios to exclude securities that would violate MIT’s investment principles [in Sudan].” This action is without precedent in the Institute’s history: MIT was one of the few schools that didn’t divest from companies that were operating in South Africa during the 1980s.

This landmark accomplishment under his belt, Kayvan has partnered with a growing band of MIT activists to establish a chapter of STAND (a student anti-genocide coalition) at the Institute. STAND and Amnesty International are hosting two important upcoming events: DarfurFast on Wednesday, December 5th, and a Darfur Fundraiser Dinner in Walker Memorial on Sunday, December 9th. Both are intended to raise awareness of the crisis in Darfur and purchase solar cookers for the three million Sudanese civilians who now live in refugee camps.

What’s next? As he continues his Darfur activism, Kayvan’s working to establish a Standing Committee on Investment Responsibility that would consider the social, environmental, and corporate governance impacts of MIT’s investments.

Thankfully, activism will continue to be a part of his life. I confess to regarding the phrase “never again” with cynicism. It offers a rhetorical smokescreen behind which the world can, and invariably does, conceal its cowardice in the face of human suffering. If more people like Kayvan fill the ranks of our leadership, however, it may well recover the meaning that it has lost.

Everyone left the auditorium that afternoon feeling energized, but I couldn’t help but think that that enthusiasm would evaporate shortly thereafter. People lead busy lives, and fighting poverty is hardly an extracurricular activity to which most can devote time – unless, that is, you’re Anne Liu ’08 (Course 7; iHouse).

At the beginning of her sophomore year, she developed a strong interest in international development (ID) issues by way of completing an extensive study of the famine that gripped Niger in 2005. After taking a few classes at MIT that focused on ID – for example, “SP.721: D-Lab” and “21A.338J: Gender, Power, and International Development” – she became convinced that MIT students have the ingenuity to address global poverty.

Thus did the Global Poverty Initiative (GPI) come into being.

I first heard about Anne in a conversation that I had with a friend early this term. She told me that Anne had established GPI, but we both had to leave before I could get more details. By coincidence, Anne and I both enrolled in Zahir Dossa’s class (see my last post), “SP.233: Think Tank: Global Solutions.” After she told me about GPI, I decided to get involved as one of the Directors for the Academic Relations Team.

GPI is easily one of the most organized and sophisticated initiatives that I’ve seen. Anne’s recruited 50 students, predominantly underclassmen, to launch Global Poverty Week (GPW) and the first intercollegiate Millennium Campus Conference (MCC) at MIT. Her goal is to make poverty an Institute priority, just like energy (check out http://web.mit.edu/gpi/ to see a detailed overview of these projects).

To give you some of the highlights, GPW and MCC will bring together hundreds of students from around the country to learn about poverty and, ultimately, connect with each other and professionals in the field to develop innovative and effective solutions. The conference will feature lectures by some of the world’s foremost authorities on poverty, as well as documentary screenings and interactive panels. It’s the first effort of its kind in the Institute’s history and, if the interest that it’s thus far generated is indicative, it’s going to be huge. While GPW will remain GPI’s flagship event every year, Anne wants the group to dig deeper – in particular, she wants poverty to occupy a more prominent space in MIT’s curriculum and global initiatives.

As impressive as GPI is, it’s her optimism – that poverty can be defeated, and that each person can contribute to that end – that I find so inspiring. She’s always talking about an interesting paper that she’s read or lecture that she’s attended or new GPI initiative that she’s undertaken, and I can’t help but wonder if she’s gotten a hold of one of Hermione’s Time-Turners.

Most people understandably don’t get involved in tackling global issues, especially one that’s as multifaceted, complex, and entrenched as poverty. According to MercyCorps, over one billion people live in extreme poverty (living on less than $1 a day), and eight million people die each year because they don’t have enough money. How does she keep her hope alive?

Having connected with like-minded individuals at colleges throughout Boston, she reminds herself and her fellow GPIers that “even students” can institute sustainable change. When you talk with Anne, you recognize that the fight against poverty is not just a laudable goal; it’s an urgent imperative. As she often says, “This is our crisis.”

“What do you want to do after school?”

“I’m going to set up a global warming research center in Antarctica.”

“Why there?”

“Why not solve global warming on the continent that’s going to sink fastest because of it?”

I couldn’t argue with that logic.

Meet Zahir Dossa ’08 (Courses 6 and 15; Nu Delta), who could sell you your own shirt and convince you that he’s going to change the world in the same breath. I’ve never met anyone who has more energy when he claims to be tired than most people have when they claim to be wide awake.

Hailing from Dallas, Texas, Zahir has been passionate about engineering his entire life. In 6th grade, he asked his best friend at the time what the best school in the world was. Without the slightest hesitation, his friend replied, “MIT”: Zahir wanted to come here from that moment on.

Over the past three years, he’s established himself as a techie par excellence. His 6.170 team won the award for the best Gizmoball game in Fall 2005, he completed a competitive internship at IBM Extreme Blue, and he spent a summer teaching Java programming in Kenya through the Africa Internet Technology Initiative.

However, he also has the business savvy (and an impeccable sense of style to go with it) to make his ideas happen. Zahir’s currently implementing treadle-powered irrigation pumps in Sudan, where water scarcity is believed to be one of the most important sources of conflict. If his idea proves successful there, as all indicators suggest that it will be, he’ll export his solution to neighboring African countries. He plans to use the profits from his NGO to fuel this expansion and establish a fund for investing in other companies that focus on sustainable development.

But he’s not just exporting his solutions; he’s spreading his passion.

This semester, I’m fortunate enough to be taking his class, “SP.233: Think Tank: Global Solutions.” It brings together students to address some of the world’s most challenging problems. Zahir wants the class teams to convert their solutions into full-fledged business proposals, submit them to various Institute competitions, and ultimately use Public Service Center funding to implement them in various developing countries.

Having seen him conceive and develop numerous ideas over the years, I’ve learned an invaluable lesson: While you can’t plunge ahead without any forethought, you’re never going to get anything done if you never stop thinking.

Don’t be ignorant of the logistical challenges that you’ll encounter, but don’t let the thought of them stop you from developing an amazing idea.

Most importantly, listen neither to those who tell you that nothing will go wrong nor to those who tell you that nothing will go right. Listen to those who challenge you at every step of the way but ultimately believe that your dream can become a reality.

I don’t know what Zahir ultimately hopes to do, if only because he generates so many powerful ideas. Maybe he’ll solve global warming or save Africa or come up with something even more amazing than the Internet. All I know is that our world needs him now more than ever, and that he’ll be ready to answer the call whenever it may come.

To tell you a bit about me... I'm a senior in Management and Political Science. It wasn't supposed to be that way because my heart was set on Economics when I got into MIT. Having been on autopilot during high school, I decided to take a year off to learn more about myself and figure out what my interests were. I deliberately decided not to come up with a plan for that year. Sure, I did some things here and there -- my family and I traveled to Pakistan for a month, and I interned at Amnesty International for a short while. For the most part, though, I stayed at home, reading and thinking.  

It was in the process of doing so that I discovered my true passion (albeit a latent one): political science. The way I see it, the study of politics is little more than the study of people, except that the stakes are a lot higher. I guess that Course 17 makes sense for me, then, since my favorite thing to do is talk to and learn about people. What are your dreams? Passions? Fears? Oddities? Everyday, I try to meet someone new or find out something new about someone I already know.

At MIT, most of the activities with which I'm involved center on politics in one way or another. I started Forum on American Progress my freshman year to increase student discussion of American foreign policy, and, along with a friend, founded the MIT International Review to spotlight global problems and solutions. I also serve as UA Vice-President, write opinion pieces for The Tech, and participate in interfaith dialogue sessions as a member of the Addir Fellows.

No introduction would be complete without some random tidbits, so I'll list the ones that first come to mind. My favorite band is Slipknot, with Simon & Garfunkel coming in as a close second.  I like doing impressions of people: in particular, Ali G, Borat, and Steven Thoen from "American Idol." I'm easily amused, partial to corny jokes, and prone to explosive laughter.  I love people who do things spontaneously for no other reason than to feel alive.

I'm hoping to go into public life one day and redress some of the injustices of which I'm daily made aware. Change is possible if we believe in our power. I don't labor under any illusions -- the political road is a tough one, fraught with unexpected challenges. If I've learned anything, though, it's that while reality should guide our mind, idealism must always kindle our heart.